Zach Herbert Bio

Zachary P. Herbert, CFAChief Investment Officer

WHY I CHOSE THIS CAREER...

When I initially started in this industry, I was not convinced I would be sticking around. My passion was in academics and education. I was simply looking to “buy some time” while I formalized a game plan for post-graduate work. However, within only a few weeks of working in finance, I was bitten and convinced I had found my home.

Finance offered everything I was looking for in a career. The material I needed to study was broad, covering multiple industries, incorporating numerous fields of study, and spanning across countries and continents. Furthermore, it was not a job that you could perfect in six months. Rather, the learning curve was never ending and would require constant education to stay sharp and relevant. I felt my passion for learning and broad curiosity had found a perfect platform.

As a person though, I was never content to have my head buried in a book. I did not find satisfaction in knowledge itself, if it was divorced from the impact of the ideas and concepts in the world. Instead, I was passionate about distilling information and simplifying complex ideas with the ultimate goal of articulating those concepts in such a way that allowed others to gain clarity. The more elusive and esoteric the concept, the greater interest I had in deconstructing and presenting in a palatable format.

Finance was an ideal career in this respect as well. I found quickly that many individuals, families, and institutions were overwhelmed by the task of investing. Going to the old adage from Albert Einstein, “not all that can be counted should count and not everything that counts can be counted.” Clients and prospects did not know what to focus in on and what was relevant to the decision making process. Rather, they came to the table with a set of preconceived ideas. “I like stocks. I need bonds. I want income of 5%. I don’t want to risk all my money. I can’t make this money back. I don’t trust the stock market, I think it’s rigged,” and the list goes on and on. Helping people clear up these murky waters and then get the added benefit of observing their investing success over years – this is what I find to be an extremely rewarding career, and one I feel fortunate to have found.

WHEN I’M NOT AT WORK…

God has granted me a beautiful wife and two wonderful children. As a result, I look forward to leaving work every day. I love spending time with them and each of their interest are so different that I find myself covering a wide range of activities. My wife and I are not sure what we will be doing each day, but we know it will be busy. Isaiah and Carter are two complete opposites. Isaiah loves all things sports. Baseball and fishing command the most interest, but he does not discriminate. One of our favorite things is to watch live baseball games or just throw the baseball/football in the backyard and chat about life. Carter, on the other hand, is geared more towards academics. He enjoys science projects, discussing geology, building elaborate Lego structures, or catching and observing bugs and lizards. With Carter, we can spend an entire afternoon sitting on a couch reading and he would chalk that up as a fantastic day. As a family, we are involved in ministry and are thankful for the opportunities to reach out in our community and help those around us.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE QUOTES

We've long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good. Even now, Charlie and I continue to believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave in the market like children. -Warren Buffett 1992 Shareholder Letter